Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Garry Tan, president and CEO of Y Combinator, shares insights from his early career mistakes, observing that the hottest areas for innovation aren’t what you read about in the media – they’re ideas that sound like a bad idea initially, but turn out to be a good idea.
—-----------------------------------
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram
Facebook: facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram
YouTube: youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.
Garry Tan, president and CEO of Y Combinator, shares insights from his early career mistakes, observing that the hottest areas for innovation aren’t what you read about in the media – they’re ideas that sound like a bad idea initially, but turn out to be a good idea.
—-----------------------------------
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram
Facebook: facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram
YouTube: youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.
![Steve Cousins (Stanford University) - Real-World Robotics [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t0bORNw_-Lw/mqdefault.jpg "Steve Cousins (Stanford University) - Real-World Robotics [Entire Talk]
Steve Cousins is the executive director of the Stanford Robotics Center and founder of Relay Robotics (formerly Savioke), which builds autonomous service robots for hotels and healthcare. Cousins’ career reflects a commitment to advancing robotics from research to real-world applications. In this presentation, he shares stories of his time in research, startups, and academia to illustrate practical advice about hiring, developing robotics products, and bringing robotics into new industries.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and other Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
X: https://x.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stanfordstvp.bsky.social
LEARN MORE
STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
eCorner by STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/ecorner
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://stvp.stanford.edu/giving-to-stvp/.")
![What No One Tells You About Entrepreneurship [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tXfCQHcPFcM/mqdefault.jpg "What No One Tells You About Entrepreneurship [Entire Talk]
Clara Shih is CEO of Salesforce AI, the world’s most trusted enterprise AI for customer relationship management. A digital pioneer, Shih has been named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, TIME’s Most Influential People in AI, and the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She is a member of the Starbucks board of directors and serves as executive chair of Hearsay Systems, a privately held digital software firm she founded in 2009. In this presentation, Shih shares unconventional advice for finding professional and personal success as an entrepreneur.
—
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
![From Conviction to Company [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t_R_kP8xIew/mqdefault.jpg "From Conviction to Company [Entire Talk]
Michelle Lee is the founder and CEO of Medra, which combines recent advances in robotics and computer vision to build lab automation technology. She has previously worked at NVIDIA, SpaceX, and McKinsey. Prior to founding Medra, Lee was an assistant professor in computer science and electrical computer engineering at New York University. In this presentation and conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Lee explains why she decided to start her deep tech company and uses her experiences to give advice to aspiring founders.
—
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
![Lessons from a Large Founding Team [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uIkfX5lsyC8/mqdefault.jpg "Lessons from a Large Founding Team [Entire Talk]
Ali Ghodsi is the CEO and co-founder of Databricks, a leader in data and AI. He pioneered the data intelligence platform built on a lakehouse architecture, revolutionizing analytics and AI for global organizations. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as the VP of engineering and product management. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Ghodsi Shares lessons he’s learned from being one of seven co-founders at Databricks and leading a company that began with open-source software.
—
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
![Garrett Lord (Handshake) - The Network Effect [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uSHxoXpuYOk/mqdefault.jpg "Garrett Lord (Handshake) - The Network Effect [Entire Talk]
Garrett Lord started Handshake to make it easier for students from all backgrounds to find internships. Lord discusses his own experience studying computer science at Michigan Tech and the disparities that leave so many students without exposure to recruiters at their campuses. In democratizing the job search, Lord talks about identifying a two-way marketplace and how to scale helping one student at a time.")
![From Stanford Students to Co-CEOs [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vfAa4EO0Dfo/mqdefault.jpg "From Stanford Students to Co-CEOs [Entire Talk]
Sophia Edelstein and Nathan Kondamuri are co-founders and co-CEOs of Pair Eyewear. Since its inception, Pair Eyewear has put consumers at the center of the innovation process, ensuring that the brand is at the forefront of redefining the eyewear experience by offering continual customizability, freedom of choice, and affordability for glasses. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Emily Ma, Edelstein and Kondamuri share their journey from coming up with an idea as Stanford students, to finding their first employees, to building company culture through rapid growth.
FOOTER
—
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
STVP Website: https://stvp.stanford.edu/
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
